4 thoughts on “The Earth is bleeding, and we’ve given it the wound”

  1. You know Karl, I’m just a bit curious about something. First let me say this entire spill is going to create a dead zone in the gulf for decades to come. The 2.4 billion dollar industry that was the livelihood for many people in that region is/will be gone.

    I feel for these people, just like I felt for those who were affected by Katrina. Which leads me to my curious question. Back in September of 2005, you posted this text within one of your posts with regards to the federal response for Katrina:

    “The rumblings of failures in our infrastructure and system are scary. Bush was – where else – vacationing – see here and here. And there is news that the levees had funding slashed by his administration.”

    Fast forward to 2010. I don’t see the same criticism towards Obama who took not a few days to even publicly comment but NINE days. All the while his travels are documented since he just has to be on TV and in the news 24/7.

    There were/are all kinds of federal/military assets that could have been used from day ONE of this spill that weren’t put into place because he had better things to do I guess. Like hosting a White House Correspondence dinner and doing a 20 minute stand up routine while the gulf coast was being floated with oil and diesel.

    I’m not saying this to beat on you. So please don’t take it as such. But as a blogger, it seems quite suspect that you haven’t bothered to mention this in as much detail as you went to back in 2005 to point a finger at Bush.

    I’m just curious as to why not?

    Peace,

    – Neo

  2. I get it that you feel that Obama has escaped the same kind of criticism as was laid on Bush by me and others.

    I am not blogging about politics as much as I’ve used to. I am focussing more on things within my realm of influence, things that inspire me, and lessons I’ve learned. Probably makes this blog a bit more boring.

    In addition I haven’t talked about this much because honestly I don’t know as much. But it is coming out now the closeness regulators had with the industry.

    What I do know is that people were suffering in the wake of Katrina. There were *known* responses to the situation that were late in being deployed. Keyword there is *known*.

    The time line on the BP oil leak is still being written, but this LA Times piece seems to be the best I could find:

    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-gulf-oil-spill-obamas-response,0,4437033.story

    This Talking Points Memo piece is concise:

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/the_gulf_coast_bp_oil_spill_a_timeline_1.php

    There are plenty of unknowns still here.

    I’m hopeful that the group of scientists recently brought together to help assist (since BP is failing) has a chance at coming to a solution to close this thing:

    http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-14/obama-sends-bomb-inventor-mars-expert-to-fix-bp-oil-spill-in-mexican-gulf.html?xid=huffbloomberg

    I’m also far, far more confident in Obama’s eventual response to the industry and to regulators. That bears watching. I could be wrong. Often am.

    So let me throw a question back at you – are you for or against offshore drilling?

  3. That’s exactly what I’m saying about the lack of criticism. I understand if you want to avoid the topic and focus on other areas it’s your blog after all.

    As for obama’s response, I wouldn’t quite count on him reigning in the oil executives for BP too harshly; after all they were one of his biggest campaign contributors, along with all those nice criminals on wall street.

    And to be fair, (ignoring his miserable late response for a moment) this situation would have been easily avoided if the proper safeguards where established in the first place. If BP was drilling anywhere else in the world they would have been forced to have additional safeguards in place such as a second run off valve that could be activated in the event of a emergency like this. It wasn’t implemented nor required due to lack of regulations; thank Dick “Darth Vader,” Cheney for that.

    I’m not quite sure I like the idea of them drilling so close to the coast which is surrounded by natural wetlands and protected animals in a region where people’s lives are dependent upon working the ocean for fish, shrimp, oysters etc. The location of this well was far too close to the land.

    We need energy, yes. At this price? No. There are patents on the books for ways to create clean energy. I think Tesla figured that out a long long time ago. But if people could get their energy for free who’s going to make money? That’s what it comes down to. Good old fashioned greed.

    This “accident,” (and trust me I don’t think it was an accident)in the gulf will be used as an excuse for government to make another power grab in the energy industry just as it has with banks, auto companies, healthcare, and the internet. (see last weeks article about the FCC getting control of the net after their “Net Neutrality,” plan failed in the courts. (So they’ll just reclassify the web as a telecom/utility and put it under the FCC’s watch.

    More so, Cap & Trade will come into play with the excuse of the gulf being thrown out at every opportunity.

    In the meantime, there are some really smart people standing around offering to help in the gulf and being told no big deal BP is going to handle it and pay for it.

    Well I guess they’d better remove that $75 million dollar cap restriction first. Unless of court someone can prove it was criminal negligence and the cap is removed.

    I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

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